A Town Hall crowd of about 70 people, including local public officials, stayed put in their seats for 90 minutes Tuesday night to hear a story that shares many similarities to one that unfolded locally in 2008.

Master skeleton articulator Mike deRoos and Project Manager Michiru Main are the biologists who headed up an effort to reassemble an 85-foot-long Blue Whale skeleton inside the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, B.C., after it was exhumed, cleaned and trucked across the country.

Main said that just as they had completed the massive project in 2010, they received a call from Fort Bragg Community Development Director Marie Jones that started with, "So, we have this whale skeleton ...." The two have been counseling city officials since 2010 about how to move forward with the project of reassembling the skeleton on earmarked city property on the former mill site.

Sheila Semans was recruited to head up the local project, which she said, was still in its infancy.

She explained that the Noyo Center for Science and Education will be a marine research lab, with several public exhibits and educational components. A fundraising campaign will start soon and it's hoped that a nonprofit agency can be found to assist.

Semans recalled the story of how local volunteers, with the assistance of many from Humboldt State University, extracted the massive skeleton, hauled it up a steep bank and buried it in the forest where it remained for four years. Sue Magoo and Sarah Grimes have since hosted several educational sessions, allowing local students a close look at the skeleton while learning marine biology.

Beaty whale story

While Fort Bragg's skeleton was acquired after a 73-foot blue whale collided with a seafloor mapping ship in 2009.

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum's situation was a bit different. The museum had already been constructed in 2007 and planning committee members were looking to create a figurehead exhibit preferably a blue whale skeleton.

Main explained that through a chance encounter, it was learned that a location on Canada's east coast had hosted the burial of complete whales some 20 years before.

At the start of a Canada winter, a team went to the location. Using a crudely-drawn map, they located a large mound and started digging. What they found was that the red clay soil and low temperatures preserved the carcass, leaving it almost fully intact.

They returned that May with teams of volunteers and heavy equipment and started unearthing bones from the tail to the head.

"We were awestruck as we peeled back the layers," Main said, showing photos of the excavation. "That's red muscle tissue we're cutting away there."

Similar to the effort on the Mendocino Coast, volunteers endured days of stomach-turning sights and smells to extract bones so large that heavy equipment was needed to move them.

Their effort took place in a 100- by 40-foot pit that filled with smelly, blubber-laden water and had to be emptied daily. After 10 days, the bones were out and the blubber was left in the pit where it was reburied.

The still fleshy skeleton was shipped across the continent to British Columbia. Along the way, one of the intact fins was taken to a hospital. Staff took x-rays and a CT scan of the fins, which later proved very useful in reassembling one of the most complete specimens in the world, deRoos said.

However, many of the bones were severely broken and required degreasing in order to reassemble them. After a failed six-month attempt at using enzymes to clean the bones, they were able to get a former military degreaser and used solvent to strip away the flesh and grease.

"This was the one thing that really worked," deRoos said, adding that it's important that all grease be cleared, prior to articulation.

After articulating the skeleton in one location, it was then trucked to the museum in parts for final assembly inside the museum.

Main joked that one bit of advice she would share is to make sure the doorway is large enough for articulated sections to pass through.

When asked, deRoos said the suspending cables and building are "overbuilt," for safety reasons. The skeleton is suspended by 19 cables, but one of the cables alone could bear the skeleton's entire weight. Main noted that through elegance of design, most of the cables and reinforcing metal are not visible.

According to deRoos, the effort cost $1.5 million, but countless volunteer hours and donations were not tallied. However, the project proved a wise investment for the museum, whose visitors return regularly and in huge numbers. Main noted that one donor gave $3 million to have his name put on the museum's atrium.

Regarding the Fort Bragg's project, deRoos said he was excited to see all that has been done. He predicted that people will come from around the world to view the exhibit. Main said some are even moved to tears at the sight of the Beaty whale and the knowledge that creatures of that size inhabit our oceans.

"You're heading in the right direction," he said. "This is a huge opportunity for your community, county and even state."

More information about the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and the whale project can be found at http://www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/blue-whale-project .